Topic: Vipassana

Borderline Personality Disorder and Beginner’s Mind

December 13, 2008 – 2:29 pm

Beginner’s mind is an aspect of mindfulness that’s particularly important if you’re struggling with symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD), says mindful-oriented doctor Kristalyn Salters-Pedneault. “Beginner’s mind means looking at things as if you are seeing them for the first time. Beginner’s mind can help us to see things in a new light, rather than [...]

By Molly De Shong | Also tagged , | Comments (3)

Teaching of the Day: The Many Aspects of Awareness

December 12, 2008 – 1:44 am

Another issue of the Vipassana Fellowship newsletter has come and gone, and in the November edition there’s a gem of a teaching by the late Godwin Samararatne—former director of the Centre at Nilambe (Sri Lanka) and a man revered for his direct and heart-felt delivery of the dharma. In this talk to beginning meditators, Godwin [...]

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Buddhist Geeks on “The Dhamma Brothers”

November 24, 2008 – 12:07 pm

Today, Buddhist Geeks Vince Horn and Ryan Oelke podcast their interview with Jenny Phillips, director and producer of the new documentary The Dhamma Brothers. Jenny’s film tells the story of how a program of vipassana meditation has taken root in an Alabama maximum-security prison. (See our post on The Dhamma Brothers project back in October.) [...]

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Teaching of the Day: Joseph Goldstein on Mindfulness

November 23, 2008 – 2:00 pm

The Vipassana teacher and IMS founder Joseph Goldstein doesn’t write a lot, but when he does, it’s clear, elegant, and completely to the point. Here’s a terrific teaching of his that we called Here, Now, Aware: The Power of Mindfulness. It’s adapted from a little jewel of a book, A Heart Full of Peace, which [...]

By Melvin McLeod | Also tagged , , , | Comments (1)

Teaching of the Day: The Value of Community

November 4, 2008 – 3:13 pm

Starting tomorrow, I think we’ll all be thinking a lot about the value of community–how to recognize our common values, how to put superficial differences aside, how, basically, to love each other. That’s the change we really need. Community is important in Buddhism too. It’s called sangha, and with the Buddha and the dharma, it’s [...]

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Inside Mind Inside Prison

October 19, 2008 – 8:43 am

Tomorrow, Monday, Oprah continues her series of interviews with those involved with The Dhamma Brothers, a film and book project that documents the first ever 10-day vipassana retreat inside in a U.S. maximum-security prison. Last week Oprah interviewed Jenny Phillips, the psychologist who organized the retreat back in 2002, then directed the film and authored [...]

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Phillip Moffitt: Desire Isn’t the Problem

October 10, 2008 – 9:50 am

Phillip Moffitt and Sharon Salzberg are two well-known vipassana teachers and authors (and frequent contributors to our magazines) who are now blogging for the Huffington Post. Today, Phillip sets us straight about the ‘problem’ with desire: “People often mistakenly believe Buddhism is nihilistic or anti-life because they have the misconception that the Buddha taught that [...]

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